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As per our telephone conversation, in addition to the sources consulted and information already available to you, please find attached a copy of the documents listed below and additional information on the situation of the Biharis in Bangladesh.

The attached copy of World Refugee Report (1989) states that most Biharis reside in refugee camps although they are free to live anywhere in Bangladesh, and states that they have a disadvantage regarding employment since they are not Bangladeshi citizens. The same source adds that those who choose to hold Bangladeshi citizenship enjoy full citizen rights. The attached article from Asiaweek, "Trapped between two destinies" (4 August 1989), states that "the Biharis have refused Bangladesh citizenship". Another attached report on Biharis, "Prisoners of peace" of the 26 January 1989 Far Eastern Economic Review, states that tens or hundreds of thousands of non-Bengalis had taken up Bangladeshi citizenship. In 1985 The Economist, in the attached article "Exodus to Pakistan", reported that Bangladesh offered the Biharis citizenship after the 1971 war which resulted in Pakistan's partition. The report states that most Biharis chose to be Pakistanis and adds that the government of Pakistan would not accept them. Various sources report that several thousand Biharis have been allowed in to Pakistan over the last decades, although it is not clear from the reports whether those admitted into Pakistan were granted Pakistani citizenship.

Both the New York-based Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch stated in telephone communications with the IRBDC on 15 August 1990 that no changes in the situation of Biharis had been recently reported. A Human Rights Watch researcher who had just returned from Pakistan indicated that the issue of Biharis is occasionally raised in the Pakistani press, but no changes in the government's policy had taken place. The researcher added that Biharis in Bangladesh do have the option of acquiring Bangladeshi citizenship, but many still refuse to do so. The researcher was certain most Biharis accepted into Pakistan had acquired Pakistani citizenship, and added that sources other than the official Pakistani source already consulted by you would not likely be able to determine in which cases of Biharis accepted into Pakistan was Pakistani citizenship actually granted.

Regarding demonstrations involving Biharis, the only specific references found among the sources currently available to the IRBDC for the abovestated period report an attack against Bihari camps by rioters in October 1984. Numerous riots and demonstration throughout Pakistan are reported for the period 1982-1985, but no specific reference to Biharis' involvement in them could be found among the available sources.

The attached documents include:
-Response to Information Request PAK2275 (2 October 1989);
-"Exodus to Pakistan", from The Economist, 7 September 1985 (available copy does not show page number);
-from Arabia: The Islamic World Review: "Pakistan refuge for Biharis?" and "Bihari camps", March 1987;
-"Trapped between two destinies", from Asiaweek, 4 August 1989, pp. 32-33;
-"Prisoners of Peace", from Far Eastern Economic Review, 26 January 1989, p. 28;
-A Chronology of Developments in Bangladesh since Independence (Ottawa: Refugee Status Advisory Committee, 1985), unnumbered page covering form 16 September 1984 to 15 October 1984;
-The Biharis in Bangladesh (London: Minority Rights Group, 1982), pp. 30-31.
-Minority Rights Group, ed.: World Directory of Minorities (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1989), pp. 295-296;
-World Refugee Report 1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau for Refugee Programs, September 1989), p. 59;
-World Refugee Survey: 1989 in Review (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Committee for Refugees, 1990), p. 77;